Galen Licht’s flat-bottom boat glides over the gray-green salty waters of Richardson Bay.

It’s medium tide on Friday morning. Swirling below the surface are the tips of green eelgrass. The aquatic plant once lined the shallows off the bay’s shoreline from Sausalito’s Spinnaker restaurant north to the Strawberry Peninsula point — the second largest bed in San Francisco Bay.

Licht, owner of Sea Trek, a Sausalito kayak and paddle board rental business, turned off the engine and surveyed the shimmery vista.

“You come out here and you look around, it’s completely open,” he said. “There’s birds. There’s eelgrass, seals. Bat rays are beneath us. You get that feeling of being connected to this place so quickly within a three-minute paddle or boat ride.” • Blades of eelgrass float on the surfa

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